Monthly Archives: December 2012

It’s the Christmas period and no doubt you’ve consumed just a few of Hollywoods finest flicks on TV while chowing down on your (halal) turkey yesterday.

So while you tuck in to some delicious left over turkey sandwiches today, I thought I’d give you a different look at what Hollywood could offer.

The clip above is the alternative ending from the 2004 film “Man on Fire” starring Denzel Washington. It’s one of my favourite films, revenge, redemption, pathos, flawed but a redeemable lead character, it has it all.

The film was directed by the late Tony Scott, and the above alternate ending is voice overed by Scott himself.

After watching the alternate ending on the DVD, I felt it was much better than the ending they actually put out, but of course, our protagonist winning by suicide bombing is never going to be allowed to air in cinema.

As the debate rages today over “Zero Dark Thirty” and it’s use of the cinematic portrayal of torture (we all know the CIA & Mi5/6 do it) in capturing Bin Laden and any bad guy or “ticking bomb scenario” that allows them to use torture, it becomes very interesting what Hollywood can frame as being a cultural norm and a taboo.

Here’s some suggested reading from my earlier posts on how Hollywood is so good at propaganda:

So here I finally arrive at the real heart of the issue why the world is in the state it is – MONEY.

It’s the way money works that has locked us into an inevitable collision of two mutually exclusive operating principles. A manmade requirement for infinite growth that collides with a man-sustaining and unyielding finite planet resources.

My undergraduate major was in Economics and everytime I see these politicians and industry guru’s talking about economic recoveries, I laugh.

I laugh because I know the fundamentals of economics and money are in direct contradiction to every single word and action they are committed to.

Last week I sat with two wonderful young adults (16+) that I’m currently mentoring and explained to them, what I’m going to share with you, it’s what underpins the world’s current economic paradigm.

You see it’s very difficult to explain these principles without your eyes glazing over and your brain going limp, but seeing “my kids” took to it, I believe it is very straightforward.

The only thing that needs to be opened to grasp it is your mind.

Ready?

Fiat Currency

The world makes money by printing it.

Money no longer has any connection to anything tangible.

Fiat currency is any currency that is created merely by a directive to print it – a fiat.

In all civilisations (up until the modern day) money was always based upon something that was physical – gold or silver, food or trade goods. Right here in Britain, the Pound Sterling was a classic example of this. It was linked to one pound of silver.

Seeing there was only a certain amount of that precious metal in existence and historically, money was pegged to that tangible substance, either in whole or in part.

By saying that there could be no more than X number of pounds or dollars in relation to a nations store of silver or gold, there was a naturally imposed limit on how much money could be in circulation. Money was used to open businesses and to buy or make things that other people bought.

This connection to something tangible provided for very stable currencies, but limited how much growth could take place by connecting it to the physical limitations of the earth.

Over the course of the last hundred years, every major nation in the world has steadily decoupled their currencies from this fundamental fact.

Under the Nixon administration in the 1970’s, the US removed any legal requirements linking dollars to gold reserves and all U.S. currency became Federal Reserve Notes.

The Federal Reserve (or Fed) is not a government institution.

Who actually owns the Fed?

A congressional hearing in 1976 listed a group of names which sound all too familiar now – Rothschild, Rockefeller, Warburg, Morgan and Alex Brown (closely linked to the Bush family).

It’s a consortium of privately owned banks – which can print whatever amount of money it deems necessary, without any regard to physical limitation.

The basic rules are:

Print too much money and you have inflation – which is bad.

Print too little money and there is no growth – recession or a depression – which is also bad.

The “Bad” is only “bad” as it applies to the monetary system of endless growth, it has nothing inherently to do with the well being of people, nations, or of the planet.

We’ve been led to believe that taking care of money was the same as taking care of ourselves, when, in fact, the opposite is true.

Taking care of money kills people.

Fractional Reserve Banking

This allows a bank to create money all by itself, based upon the number of actual dollars it has on deposit.

You deposit £100 with Bank X

Bank X can now make loans of about £900 in keeping with its reserve requirements.

Although reserve requirements vary the world over, the rule of 9:1 is a good example.

It’s more money being created out of thin air.

This is what bought down Northern Rock.

The great financial meltdown we’ve been in since September 2008 resides in the fact that with all the bad and fraudulent debts from the housing bubble on their books, banks have lent all the money they can without exceeding their reserve requirements.

That’s why credit dried up.

The bailouts given to banks were essentially to take away the bad loans from their books – to create more money so they could issue more credit.

This failed as banks refuse to lend to its customers.

The massive banking consolidation we saw meant that the wave of acquisitions and mergers pre 2008 happened so that the bigger banks could acquire the deposits of failing banks and use that cash to service their debt and lend more money – and create more money for themselves.

Compound Interest & Debt Based Growth

Almost all economic growth is accomplished by borrowing.

Start up companies borrow to set up production lines and infrastructure.

Established companies borrow to finance everything from major new projects that would otherwise eat up all their cash, or to buy out other companies (leveraged buyouts).

You and I (used to be able to) borrow from our credit cards for our car loans and for our mortgages. In every case more money must be paid back than was usually borrowed. This can only happen if there is growth.

Compound (rather than simple) interest says that for that portion of the debt that remains unpaid per month or per year, more interest is charged on the unpaid balance.

Simple interest, on the other hand, fixes the amount of money created with each transaction.

A simple-interest contract of 5% says that on a £1000 loan “a fee” of £50 will be paid for using the banks money.

A compound-interest loan says that 5% of the unpaid balance will be charged each year until the loan is paid in full. If only £100 of the loan is paid in the first year, then 5% of the remaining £900 (or £45) will be charged the next year and so on until the loan reaches a zero balance.

In the third year, assuming 10% of the principle is paid leaving a balance of £810 the interest will be £40.50.

In just three years £135.50 of new money has been created on a £1000 loan.

You pay back much more than you have borrowed.

Banks create are creating money in this process that simply didn’t exist before.

If you take many years to pay off your credit card, the debtor – the bank, has created lots of money, which of course goes back to the bank, which in turn can and will lend it out nine times over (fractional reserve remember?).

Now lets inflate the value of a home arbitrarily (anywhere in London or the UK) and lock the home buyer into a 30 or 40 year adjustable rate mortgage and you start creating lots of money that, because of the economic paradigm, must get used again – to create more money!

It’s a giant pyramid scheme.

The entire global economy and monetary system is a pyramid scheme.

Compound Growth

Brace yourself……here’s where it gets really ugly.

China and India have in recent years, both boasted about growth rates of 8% per year.

For example, China had 300 million cars in 2004, an 8% growth rate would suggest an increase of 24 million cars in one year.

But

In developing nations the first thing everyone wants is a car, so vehicle growth rates are actually much higher.

“We project that the number of cars will increase by 2.3 billion between 2005 and 2050, with an increase by 1.9 billion in emerging countries”

Re-read the above passage.

Is that 2.3 billion vehicle increase in China alone or globally?

Well you can look it up, or you can start to laugh really hysterically……because it doesn’t matter.

The UN and other sources estimate there are only 700-800 million internal combustion powered vehicles on the planet and seeing we don’t have the capacity of natural resources to sustain our lives as they stand today, where are all these cars going to spring up from?

Do you see anyone building factories to match that demand?

We’ll soon be at the stage where someone will have to turn around and tell the Indians and Chinese “Oops, sorry, you don’t get to live the American dream that we marketed so well through our movie and pop culture, because we’ve used up all the oil”

Pick an issue, a real world issue that effects Muslims – Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, Kashmir and you can count one hand the number of Masajids in this country that actively teach their congregation what they can do to change the status quo.

Now pick another issue from the list –

– is it permissible for women to wear nail varnish?

– does Allah have a hand, or is it a meta-physical hand?

– defeating satan by saying Bismillah.

These are just three topics that I’ve heard with my own ears, over the last few years on Jumma Khutbah’s whilst various parts of the Muslim world were being bombarded back into the stone ages.

I’ve nothing against these topics being discussed, but theirs a time and a place, their is a priority.

I originally wrote this article The World Against Israeli Apartheid for the MPACUK website during Ramadan and due to time constraints, ended up not posting it on my own blog. That article is worth reading, and I’d highly recommend you take 10 minutes and watch the video above taken from “The World Against Apartheid”, which shows the force of good religion can play in defeating evil.

As I wrote previously, the Masajids and the self elected leadership are the ultimate community gate keepers, they’re not here to help facilitate your concerns, they’re here to ensure any potentially tough questions and situations are smoothed over, a quick and simple “not my problem sonny” and it’s done with.

Because when you tell me “Yes we had a meeting with the Shura about it”

and?

that’s it

You should be satisfied that a bunch of uncles and grandads took 30 seconds to discuss it between running their taxi empires and slurping tea and chowing down on samosas.

You would have thought that an area that has 20,000 voting Muslims in it should be taken seriously:

And it would be if the community leaders and councillors had anything other than their own ego’s and careers at stake.

You see, an MP like Steve Baker has a civic role to play in society, so when a local car dealer asks him to pop down for the grand opening of his business, he usually will:

Muslims are all too happy to get the MP to pop around for a picture opportunity when they’re opening a new curry take away, or along a meaningless march like the Prophet (SAW) birthday celebrations, or hell, just to get their picture with the great MP himself:

But get any of these self serving, self righteous leaders to demand their MP does something constructive for 20,000 potential votes?

No….

That’s impossible

I mean we’ll have a meeting about it.

But what can we do?

You see that’s what the gate keepers will tell you – to keep the restless native quiet – so the master can go about his job unabated.

Last week the world spoke out against Israel in the United Nations Assembly.

William Hague and the UK proved to be on the wrong side yet again by their abstaining vote.

The sands are shifting in the favour of the Palestinians 65 year struggle for justice.

It’s not an act of negligence, but damn right criminality, that so many of OUR Masajids did nothing to help.

Muslims are the new Jews right? Surah Maidah Verse 24 encapsulates everything that is wrong with Muslims today.

In Palestine we had almost two hundred people dead, the vast majority being women and children, with close to a thousand injured, there was more than a billion pounds worth of damage caused to infrastructure, that will never be rebuilt – thanks to the Israeli blockade of building supplies like cement and steel coming into Gaza.

You and I know this because we don’t believe the lies spun by the mass media, we rely on our own sources, from people like Harry Fear for example who reported from Gaza with his laptop and an internet connection. You see, that’s all it really takes, that and having the courage to do it.

When Gaza was being pummelled by the Israeli’s, I thought I’d do my best from here, to rally the locals, get some sort of pressure built up against the local MP to act. I was effectively given lip service – “Yes, we’ll do something” or to that effects. Well you can’t bullshit a bullshitter.

"Truth stands out clear from Error: whoever rejects evil & believes in Allah has grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold that never breaks. And Allah hears & knows all things."
(The Qur'an, Al-Baqara, 2: 256)

“Political authority & religion are kin brothers, neither would stand but by its companion; because religion is the foundation of political power & its pillar, & political power is the guardian of religion; political power is not established with a foundation & religion cannot be implemented without authority.”
- Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi

"War is not merely a political act, but also a political instrument, a continuation of political relations, a carrying out of the same by other means" - Clausewitz

"O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things)."
(The Qur'an, Al Hujurat, 49: 13)